Author Comments:

Aaaaaaaaaaaand, we're back! Hope everyone enjoyed all the Christmas stuff! Sorry to kick things off with a page that's several hours late, but I didn't really have time to get extra pages done in the midst of all that other stuff. Oh well.

Anyway, this actually ISN'T just me taking care of some nits before they're picked (well, not entirely) This bit about how the life support works will actually be important, plot wise. Have fun trying to figure out how!

Nobody's hungry enough to bring up food at the moment, but if they really needed, the Cap'n could manually open the snack machines. There's also emergency rations in the same places hey got those lights.

As for gravity, the idea is that it's a lot easier to fix things when you aren't floating around helplessly. That, and the Cap'n probably got a better deal on gravity plates than he could on lights. :)

Ship's down, but it's set up to go 'ghost ship' when it does, with artificial gravity and air.
It makes sense though-if the ship loses power it's dead in the water-you want to make it easy for a rescue squad to fix things, and gravity& air will do that! Rescue squad worth it's salt will bring lights of their own, so they can see the headcrabs leap on their faces!

Alright, why they still have air makes sense. That's what a ship like that should have.

But why doesn't the captain's suit work if the other low power systems work? I can't imagine it uses a lot of power unless the captain has it tied into the ship's power somehow or he's carrying a small nuclear reactor in his pocket.

Either that, or they life support isn't working and they are just breathing whatever air is left in the room.

Now now, we still don't know exactly what bells and whistles the Cap'n has installed in that suit over the years. It might eat up a lot more power than even HE realizes.

(Conversely, we don't know exactly how much power the life support units are using, either. They could just be REALLY efficient)

The ship does have escape pods, and they do have their own separate power sources... but so does the previously mentioned suit. It's highly unlikely they would work if the Cap'n isn't working. (Unless someone got out and pushed, and they just hoped to drift into some help)

hmm how would i prioritize things? Air would obviously be the top. next would either be water or food. i think the vending machines have both, so i would probably have several types of backup batteries installed in them for if the power went out. lights would be rather low on the list for me actually. flashlights, candles, cellphones are a cheap alternative

While he has a good point about "only what is needed to survive", anything causing catastrophic failure will require that:
1. Passengers do not panic and cause more damage
2. Crew is able to fix the problem ASAP.

Light is very important for both of those...
Then again, he actually thought it out so even if he didn't not arrive at the perfectly correct solution his idea is well justified.